September 14, 2013

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Farside 50 - Almost

.F#.
Name................................
.F#.
Name...............................
1
Schwarzschild
26
Korolev
2
Karpinskiy
27
Orientale Basin
3
Compton
28
Tsiolkovskiy
4
D'Alembert & Slipher
29
Gagarin
5
Birkhoff
30
Aitken
6
Giordano Bruno
31
Van de Graaff
7
Fabry & Catena Sumner
32
Eternity Mountains
8
H.G. Wells
33
Orientale Ash Ring
9
Landau
34
Mare Australe
10
Joliot & Catena Dziewulski
35
Jules Verne
11
Moscoviense
36
Mare Ingenii
12
Buys-Ballot
37
Oppenheimer
13
Jackson
38
Leibnitz-Finsen
14
Mach
39
Apollo
15
Ohm
40
Orientale South
16
King
41
Planck
17
Mendeleev
42
Poincare
18
Kohlschutter
43
South Pole-Aitken
19
Hertzsprung
44
Hale
20
Orientale West
45
Schrödinger & Valley
21
Unnamed
46
Antoniadi
22
Necho
47
Shackleton*
23
Keeler-Heaviside
48
Soviet Mountains
24
Icarus
49
25
Crookes
50


The table above and the text below appeared as an LPOD five years ago. At that time there were a few suggestions of what might be added to the list to reach 50 items but perhaps there are some new recommendations because we have much more experience looking at the farside now due to the LRO QuickMap that makes it just as accessible as the nearside. So what are some of your new farside favorities? I guess I could perhaps answer this question just by looking at what Moto Shirao and I included in our Kaguya Atlas of the Moon, but I'd be interested in your opinions too.

Recently I was asked by one of the folks who work with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Lunar 100, a listing of 100 interesting observing objects on the nearside. The Lunar 100 has been used to select targets for the marvelous HDTV camera. A number of objects came to mind immediately for the farside list: Orientale Basin, Giordano Bruno brilliantly-rayed crater, impact-melt splashing King crater, Icarus with the too high central peak and others. I sat down with the Bussey and Spudis The Clementine Atlas of the Moon and Byrne's The Far Side of the Moon and spent a couple of pleasant hours selecting 48 candidates. Actually, 47, for Shackelton, the polar crater perhaps with ice on its floor, is at 89.9°, not quite on the farside. (Of course, coordinates at the poles may may be off by more than 0.1° so I am leaving it in the list for now.) I need two (or three) additional features so as to not end up with the Farside 48! Can anyone suggest some candidates that are relatively large and unusually interesting?

Chuck Wood

Two more notes from 2013: 1. More of these Farside 48 have appeared in LPOD since 2007 but I haven't updated the links. 2. Looking at the Amazon.com page I see that the book sells for almost twice what it did when it came out in 2011. I better hold on to my copy as an investment!

Yesterday's LPOD: Another Small Mystery

Tomorrow's LPOD: Not Because It is Easy



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